--What were the average shot lengths (ASLs) for the following periods?
1920s - 4-6 seconds
1930-1960 - 8-11 seconds
Mid-1960s - 6-8 seconds
1980s - 4-7 seconds
2000 (“by century’s end”) - 3 seconds
--How has faster editing in Hollywood affected the other elements of film style?
Directors now feel no hesitation to cut in the middle of a camera movement. Gratuitous fast, jerky camera movements have become common. Directors also have begun to use the rack focus as a kind of cut to keep up the tempo.
--Why are establishing shots less necessary in intensified continuity?
Shot/reverse shot exchanges tend to reiterate the information that is given with an establishing shot. So, more time is being spent on the characters in order to intesify dialogue exchanges instead of orienting the viewer.
Going to Extremes
--How were wide angle (short) lenses used after 1970?
Filmmakers using wide-screen formats commonly resorted to the wide-angle lens to provide looming close-ups, expansive establishing shots, views inside cramped quarters, and medium shots with strong foreground-background interplay. The use of the distorting effects of the wide-angle lens also became widely used in comical situations.
--How were telephoto (long) lenses used after 1970?
The long lens could suggest either a documentary immediacy or a stylized flattening, making characters appear to walk or run in place. The long-socus lens became an all purpose tool, available to frame close-ups, medium shots, ocer the shoulder shots, and even establishing shots. When used for close ups, its shallow depth of field automatically softened and glamorized faces. Its squeezed perspective suited the abstract pictorialism of films like Scarface.The long lens encouraged the self conscious rack focusing that came to prominence in the 60s.
